Fifteen women qualified for the New England Div. III Championships, and some also qualified for the All-New England and ECAC Championships, following their performances at the Husky Carnival on Saturday.
The meet, hosted by Northeastern at the Reggie Lewis Center, included a number of Div. I and II teams and provided stiff competition for the Jumbos.
Middle distance was a strength for Tufts on Saturday, with freshman Marisa Mann (ninth, 2:23.81) and junior Daniela Fairchild (11th, 2:26.10) both qualifying for New England Div. III's in the 800 meter. In addition, freshman Laura Walls took fifth (5:15.18) in the mile, narrowly beating Laurie Yorgensen of Keene State and qualifying for ECACs.
Sophomore Sarah Crispin and senior Katie Sheedy took fourth (3:03.06) and sixth (3:06.49) respectively in the 1, 000-meter, with Crispin qualifying for All-New England's and Sheedy narrowly missing the 3:06.24 standard for that race.
"It's always good to have a good start. It helps get your head [ready] for the rest of the season," Crispin said.
In the sprints, sophomore Jillian Warner took 16th (7.61) in the 55 meter and 11th (26.64) in the 200 to qualify for New England Div. III's in both events. Junior Rachel Bloom also qualified for New England Div. III's in the 200 with a 14th-place (26.82) finish.
Sophomore MacKenzie Rawcliffe will throw her hat into the ring as well at New England Div. III's in the 55 hurdles with her 15th-place finish in a time of 9.34.
In the 5,000, junior Becca Ades ran the wrong number of laps, costing her and a few other finishers qualifying times, but sophomore Jenny Torpey (10th, 19:35) and senior Emily Pfeil (eighth, 19:21) did qualify in the 5,000 for New England Div. III's.
"It was a solid start," Sheedy said. "That's good for [Pfeil] because she was hurt a lot for cross [country]."
Senior Jess Colby had strong performances in the women's weight throw (seventh, 12.39 meters) and the shot put (ninth, 10.70). Freshman Jenna Weir (sixth, 10.29) qualified for New England Div. III's in the triple jump.
"[Weir] will be one of our top jumpers this year and has a ton of potential," coach Kristen Morwick said. "Her performance in the triple [jump] was remarkable mostly because she had just finished the 200 meter when she had to take her first attempt in the triple."
Close to half of the team did not run on Saturday. Many distance runners chose to rest after a competitive cross country season, while others sat out because they are still adjusting to daily training.
Some of the runners who did not participate included sophomores Melissa Henry and Raquel Morgan, and freshmen Catherine Beck, Katy O'Brien, Kaleigh Fitzpatrick and Anna Shih.
Junior Megan Sears is currently injured with a possible ACL tear and sat the meet out as well.
"[The meet] means nothing to us as a team," Morwick said. "We don't use this first meet for that purpose and we have no idea how we will be based on this meet since many of our kids didn't compete."
"It was the first meet," Crispin said. "A lot of people didn't run. It was a laid back, sort of get your feet wet kind of thing."
The freshmen that did compete had a good day for the Jumbos, with Walls, Weir and Mann running great races.
At full strength, the freshmen could be a big part of this team.
"Whatever the freshmen do this year will be a bonus," Morwick said. "You don't look to them to be big point scorers their first year, but based on what they did in high school, they are right where they should be at this point in the year."
With most of the team sitting out and many other Div. III schools not in attendance on Saturday, it was hard for the Jumbos to judge how they will match up against their main Div. III competitors, Wheaton and Williams.
"It wasn't a high-pressure meet, but it was important for us and our team to see where we are at this point," Sheedy said. "It was good to get a race over with before break and also having come off of cross country, it was good to have a strong race."
The Jumbos will not run again until after the winter break on Jan. 9 at the Dartmouth Relays. That means the Jumbos must stay focused and train on their own over the break.
"Going into the break, it's all about not sitting in front of the TV and eating holiday treats," Morwick said. "It's about taking some time off of school and hanging with family and friends and getting in the workouts and lifting.
"If people can stay relatively fit, we'll be okay."
"Everyone's going to train hard for the next month while we're away," Sheedy said. "And then we'll come back and hopefully be better than we are right now."
